I recently had the honor of attending a one week mini-MBA at Harvard. The program was targeted towards executives in my industry, but much of the content cut across business (and society) in general. One of the lecture topics was the concept of "implicit bias." The professor discussed research which supports the theory that the vast majority of people (and executives) cannot get beyond the biases that have been woven into their professional and personal fabric through their childhoods, media, personal experiences etc. And the funny thing (not so much) is that it plays out day after day in my corporate brothel. This was illustrated in class by one fascinating and well researched example: how does the white male executive typically respond to a black woman in a position of power? The answer: NOT VERY WELL. He becomes physically uncomfortable and, at times, is at a loss for words. Literally. The explanation: his implicit bias makes it difficult for his little brain to process and accept the idea that an African American woman might hold the cards to his short and long term future. And we wonder why so many black female executives crash and burn when surrounded by "the man." I've already witnessed this once since being at Harvard -- I must say, i got a little pleasure out of seeing it play out! So, the message to all you whores: acknowledge that you, too, probably have an implicit bias.......get in touch with it, overcome it and work it to your competitive advantage. Because the statistics show that most whores never will!
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